Michele Holcomb

**december daily** - day 11

Nyna and I took advantage of the hour and a half we had at my parents' house for a little nap before Anna came home from school. These were taken outside during the rain, so they are not the best photos. Oh well...moving on!

So as much as I love this project, I can feel myself running out of steam. I thought I would enjoy the ease of putting my pages together without having the base done, but it's a lot more work than I care to admit.

Last year was really super easy...Ali was definitely right as well as many others in putting the base together first. 

I really love Molly's and Melanie's book. Perfect amount of photos and words. 

Thinking of some changes for next years album is definitely on my mind. I'm also feeling this shift in how I create will be a little different too. Change and being inspired is always good!  

**december daily** - days 8, 9, and 10

Playing a little catch up here since we've had such rainy weather. Our days continue to be typical days with school, work and a little sprinkle of activities.  

Day 8 is a simple letter to my husband, Andre, which expresses how proud I am of him for going back to school to pursue a new career path. Not only is he working, taking care of us, but he's carrying almost a full load of classes. He has not complained once this semester. When he puts his mind to something, there is no stopping him. The letter is housed in the envelope by Recollections (bought at Michael's). 

Day 9- That's me...the girl with the head full of hair. I figured out how to use the timer on the camera by accident (mind you...i've had the camera for a couple of years). So since I was the only one on my team at work, I played around with it towards the end of the work day. The caption reads: Counting down the days to vacation. Which is really what I was thinking when I took that picture. Patterned Paper is from My Mind's Eye and RicRac Ribbon and "Wish" Sticker from Making Memories. 

Day 10- Arianna's Winter Faire at school and my journaling on the other side. I did this on my day 6 page, so I figured there is no sense in re-inventing the wheel, right? The Winter Faire is something that we were looking forward to this year. The school PTA & Staff put on this wonderful evening filled with games, face painting, food from around the world & a Craft Bazaar. Photo looks a little grainy but it's not like that in real life. I can't seem to get a better photo. 

Tonight the girls and I are attending the "Singing Christmas Tree" at Church with my in-laws. They are ready to sport their fancy dresses. 

I'll be back on Tuesday with days 11 & 12. 

**december daily** - days 5, 6 & 7

Day 5

Nyna and I spent some time together at the Border's Bookstore listening to Dr. Suess stories and The Night Before Christmas. Photo collage made in photoshop and adhered to the Making Memories patterned paper. My favorite Martha Stewart punch also had to make a debut.

Day 6

This picture was actually taken on Saturday but I really wanted to capture Nyna's Christmas Spirit and this was the perfect picture. I feel that the layout does not do the photo justice. The colors clash to me and it's really bugging me. It's taking a lot of restraint to not re-do this page. 

This is the journaling page that accompanies this photo. It just talks about our day and how much I love experiencing Christmas through her eyes.

Day 7

We had a little snow yesterday and I was able to take a couple of quick pictures before I headed off to work. I used a Jenni Bowlin Holiday Bingo Card and adhered my photos to back.

So far this is my favorite page. I think the photo does it for me, even though the clarity isn't all that great. The pearl ribbon I believe is from May Arts and the patterned paper from October Afternoon.

Off to finish watching the Biggest Loser Finale!

**december daily** - day 3 & 4

[click image to enlarge]

For the past few days I have been getting to know a little more about photoshop and all of it's capabilities. Not only have I learned a lot through the Yesterday&Today class but I've been going back & forth to Cathy Zielske's tutorials. I think next year, I may just dive right in and take a class with Jessica Sprague. I've heard wonderful things about her classes. 

One of the things that I've been playing around is making photo collages and adding digital brushes. The process is fairly simple and if I knew many of the shortcuts on the keyboard, i'm sure it would be much faster. 

This is a closer image of my Day 3 entry. Nothing to holiday-ish about my day but it's my day nonetheless. The digital brush is another one from Ali over on Designer Digitals. 

[click image to enlarge] 

This is the backside to my page 2 with a digital image from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. I printed the image on canvas patterned paper from Me&My Big Ideas (Natural Muslin). Never did I think I could run canvas through my printer until I saw Molly's memory keeping ways. She really ROCKS the canvas. Check this out. Thinking I will be doing this technique again. 

Day 4

Friday Family Night was spent watching Elf then a little impromptu photo shoot. This photo pretty much sums up our night. Laughing and eating popcorn and a little bit of chocolate ice cream. 

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I'm feeling a little out of sorts with this year's album. I feel that it's not capturing the mood of the holiday but I'm at a loss of what to document. Especially when I'm not with the girls during the day. I think once I put up the holiday decorations, my mood will change. 

'Til next time

**december daily** - day 1 & 2

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The start to my December Daily could not get any simpler than this. I was really making it harder on myself than I needed to. So I re-grouped and re-focused my energy on simply capturing my days. Photos, words and a few embellies. And...i'm liking it. 

Day 1 journaling reads- Caramel Brulee Latte: Starbucks combined espresso and steamed milk with a rich caramel sauce and topped it with whipped cream and shimmery pieces of caramel topping. My new favorite winter drink. 

I created a tag below and a starbucks embellishment using the the coffee cup sleeve. I couldn't decide where to place the tag, so it's just free flowing in the binder. 

Day 2 was really fun to create. I used photoshop to create the photo grid along with Ali E.'s Remember Word Art. My first digital element! 

Day 2 journaling reads: You and me. Stealing a little alone time together at Chili's this afternoon. Planned date nights seem to have been put on the back burner. Finding time for us can be a little hard with two girls who never like to leave our side. This hour spent with you has been the highlight of my day. We really need to do this more often.  

I'm really enjoying the process of collecting photos of my day and adding words to make it a little more memorable. Not to mention the digital elements are really growing on me.  

Off to enjoy some family time. 

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Products - Cardstock: Kraft Bazzill & Michael's; Corner Rounder Punch: Making Memories, Round & Tag Punch: Fiskars; Ink:ColorBox Chalk; Other: Ribbon

Feeling Creative

 

[Products - Patterned Paper: Daisy D's; Cardstock: Michael's; Brads: Basic Grey & American Crafts; Red Pearls: Kaiser Scrapbook; Font: Big Caslon] 

After much debate (with myself) I decided to try my hand at making my own numbers for the December Daily Album. I'm quite proud of myself, especially since I placed a little dent in my scrap stash. Rather than placing these on my pages ahead time, i'll just grab the appropriate number for that day. It took me maybe, less than 1.5 hours to make. The hardest part for me was selecting the font and patterned paper background. The rest came together rather quickly. Now...i'm thinking of making a count down garland a little larger than these numbers. We'll see...

'Til Next Time

December: I'm ready!

This year I have decided to go the super simple route with an 8x8 album, kraft cardstock, selected patterned papers of reds and yellows, and some carefully selected embellishments due in part to the Yesterday&Today class that I've been taking over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I've been totally inspired to focus on photos&words and I really want to try and capture that in this album. Not to mention that with this new workplace I've started...i'm not really sure what our December will look like.

 

Well...I started the outer frame of the album this past weekend using up some of my older stash. The sheer Making Memories frame has been around here for awhile. It feels good to finally use it. I'll continue to work on the inner pages this week. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to number the pages ahead of time as I'm really liking the idea of a digital element for my numbers (similar to this or this or this.)

[sorry for the blurry shot. this is the best i could get it.]

Over at Studio Calico, one of the members started a little support group so we can keep the momentum going throughout the month. I love reading people's ideas of how their going to document this experience. It's exciting to see it all unfold. And if you're looking for inspiration, you're going to definitely want to take a trip over to the December Daily flickr group. 

Here's to capturing the moment as it happens!

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[Products: American Crafts 8x8 Cloth Album; Making Memories Sheer Frames; K&Co Layered Accents; Karen Foster Scrappers Floss; Basic Grey Brads; Ribbon and button]

December Daily Progress

So, I'm slowly gathering my materials to join Ali E. (and many others) in this wonderful adventure of documenting the month of December. I had such a great experience with last year's book, I couldn't pass up the chance to do this again. You can see the whole book here (or click on the Daily December 08 on the right sidebar). I lost a little momentum towards the end so I'm hoping that I can keep up a good pace this year.

Right now...I'm undecided on what type or size of an album to use. In the photo above, I have a red 8x8 cloth binder by American Crafts and I also ordered an 8x8 corduroy album (leaf color). I even toyed with the idea of making my own 6.5x8 covers out of chipboard. I'll have to make my decision soon so I can start prepping.

I'm also excited about challenging myself to use what I have on hand with a few new items mixed in for good measure. I'm trying to stay away from looking at all of the new Holiday lines, but boy...it sure is hard. Have you seen this line?! It's adorable. Must. Restraint. Myself.

'Til next time